Serial killer's family shocked by letter

The estranged brother of Melbourne serial killer Paul Denyer was shocked and angry after receiving a letter from the jailed triple murderer at his workplace in Surry, south of London.

Denyer is serving a minimum 30 year sentence at Victoria's maximum security Barwon Prison for stabbing and strangling three young women in a seven week period in 1993 at Frankston in Melbourne's south-east.

He had previously threatened to kill his brother David's wife and children and made false allegations that David sexually abused him as a child.

David Denyer today said he and his family had moved overseas to get away from his brother and had been shocked to receive the letter.

"First I was numb with shock, it was hard for me to understand," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

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"The more I've been thinking about it the last 24 hours, the more angry I have been becoming - it's an insult to us, it really is."

David Denyer said the system had failed his family and should be changed to make sure prisoners could not contact their victims.

"It could have been the parents of one of the girls that he killed," he said.

"We think we should get an apology because that is just not right.

"The law should be changed to stop prisoners from having any contact in any way shape or form with any of their victims or the victims' families."

In his letter, Paul Denyer apologised to his brother for alleging that he killed the three women because David had abused him as a child.

David Denyer today described how his brother had threatened his wife, Julie, in a Frankston shopping centre in 1992.

"He stood nose to nose with her and said basically 'I am going to kill you and kill your kids'," he said.

The arrival of the letter had shaken his wife, Mr Denyer said.

"She took the letter, went to the bathroom to read it, had to read it twice before she could even come to terms with the fact that she had this letter in her hands that was written by Paul," he said.

Paul Denyer said he never wanted to hear from his brother again.

"As far as I'm concerned the man doesn't exist," he said.

"If he died tomorrow I wouldn't shed a tear."

Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson has promised to speak with David Denyer about how the letter made it to his family.

In his letter Denyer says he got his brother's address from a friend who is a music teacher in London.

Prisoners' letters are currently scanned but not read before they are sent.

Denyer signed the letter as Paula, the name he has used since he began his bid for a sex change, which was refused in June this year.